Tech Crimes
Identity Theft & Cyber Crime <<
Recognizing that identity theft inflicts a heavy financial and emotional cost on its victims, Kamala works doggedly to combat this financial crime through her three part initiative: prosecuting scammers, educating the public on how to protect themselves, and sponsoring legislation that facilitates criminal prosecution. Kamala's key efforts in the ongoing fight to protect consumers from financial crime include:
- Creating a High-Tech Crime and ID Theft Unit in 2004.
- Partnering with local law enforcement agencies to ensure proper ID theft training as well as detect and stop scams.
- Sponsoring SB 226, signed into law by Gov Arnold Shwarzenegger on August 6, 2009, which allows prosecutors to bundle individual identity theft cases committed in multiple counties, thereby avoiding having to prosecute in piecemeal fashion.
- Releasing a comprehensive ID theft protection manual for consumers.
- Aggressively prosecuting ID thieves. Facts from some recent cases where convictions were secured:
- Massive scheme involving theft from residential mailboxes. Defendant found with more than 1,800 pieces of mail.
- Stolen checks altered and cashed as part of a mail theft ring.
- ID theft scheme that relied on stealing purses of unknowing diners.
- Credit cards manufactured based on stolen identities.
- Owner of a restaurant running credit card charges on former patrons.